A questionnaire to measure general practitioners' attitudes to their role in the management of patients with depression and anxiety.

OBJECTIVE

Attitude, together with knowledge, is important in determining behaviour. Doctors' attitudes affect the recognition and management of mental health. We detail the development of an instrument to measure general practitioner attitudes to the recognition and management of depression and anxiety disorders.

METHOD

A literature review and semistructured interviews with GPs identified constructs for inclusion into the questionnaire. Items were written and examined by a panel of psychiatrists, GPs and statisticians to establish face and content validity. The resulting 30 item questionnaire was given to a convenience sample of 63 GPs in Australia with an interest in mental health, and their responses analysed using exploratory factor analysis.

RESULTS

Exploration of the data identified two factors. Factor 1 contained 12 items measuring professional comfort and competence with the care of mental health disorders (alpha = 0.82). Factor 2 contained five items that assessed GP concerns about difficulties with the health care system in this area (alpha = 0.73).

DISCUSSION

The factor analysis shows that GPs' attitudes can be parsimoniously described by two factors, instead of the five that the literature suggests. The high values of Cronbach's alpha demonstrate that these two factors can be measured reliably. These were not the anticipated results, and can be taken to indicate that GPs' attitudes to their roles in the recognition and management of patients with depression and anxiety disorders are less complex than might otherwise be imagined.